BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) - County leaders and health experts discussed the role employers should have in the fight against opioids addiction and recovery.
The discussion, held Tuesday, promoted the idea that an employer should assist one of their employees struggling with addiction to opioids instead of firing them.
"People who are recovering from addiction need places to work," Howard Hitzel, President & CEO of Best Self Behavioral Health, told WBEN. "They need jobs. As you can imagine, if you're struggling and sitting at home all by yourself day after day, it doesn't further your recovery. Getting employers to understand the recovery process and the struggles that people who have addictions have been through, will help us improve lives for folks."
Opioids ravaged communities across the United States, with fentanyl laced drugs causing the death of thousands of people. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, more than 115 people in the country die each day after an opioid overdose. Last year, there were 130 confirmed cases of opioid overdoses in Erie County, though that number could peak to as much as 205 deaths.
Hitzel said workforces should not tolerate unacceptable behavior from an addict any more than they would any other employee. However, employers could inquire into the cause of problems and offer assistance in various programs such as counseling.
Best Self Behavioral Health has substance abuse clinics around Erie County which feature same-day access to counselors, medication-assisted treatments within 24 hours, and mobile clinics.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz was also a member of the speaker series and said addiction is a disease that can be treatable.
"If an employer has an employee that has hypertension, they wouldn't necessarily terminate that employee because of hypertension," he said. "Same thing with diabetes...Same thing needs to be done with opiates and other addictions that are disease."
Poloncarz said employers cannot always fire employees or discriminate against them if they fail a drug test because the employee may have a legitimate prescription for the drugs.
"I think a lot of (employers) don't know how to go about (handling addiction)," Poloncarz added. "We have heard from many employers that said they had employees that passed because of an overdose or a family member had died...They're very aware of it but aren't always sure of the best direction to go."
